Of theVortex Born: Chapter Two
Jul. 11th, 2008 12:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amberfocus
Chapter Two: Bureaucracy and Little Things
“You can’t just drop a bomb on us like that and walk away,” Landon said as Rose strode rapidly down the corridor. “What do you mean our father? I thought you said it was impossible for him to come here?”
“No, I said that he said that it was impossible to come here. I’ve seen too much in my life, done too much, become too much for me to ever believe in the validity of the word impossible, Lan.”
“But…our father? How is that even possible?” Mairi wondered struggling to keep up with her mum in her rather ridiculous shoes. No wonder Rose always wore trainers.
“Look, kids, I’ll explain it all to you later, because it’s going to be much later before I have a clear picture of what’s going on. For the time being, just let me do my thing, all right?” With that Rose took off at a jog, leaving her children grumbling behind her.
Rose’s domicile was in the outermost habitat ring of dome Gamma, one with a view of the surface of the moon, and she’d need to go there before reporting to her boss. Nothing was going to happen without her TARDIS key. If she was lucky she’d get home and back out again before Jamie returned from school. She didn’t want to get into a long-winded conversation with Jamie about the prom. Of her three children, Jamie had the personality closest to the Doctor and the gob to match.
She was lucky. She found the TARDIS key on an old key ring in the kitchen junk drawer and was thrilled to see it was glowing. Even though she’d seen the evidence with her own eyes it was the golden key that actually made it hit home for her that this wasn’t a dream or a fantasy or the blind imaginings of the heartbroken girl she’d once been. The key made it real. She smiled softly.
With a glance up at the clock, Rose decided she had time for a quick shower. Water was used sparingly on the moon, but the first colonists had quickly worked out a way of vibrating dirt and grime off the body. It was a sonic dispersal unit. She grinned. Bet the Doctor would like a sonic shower, she thought.
She used a small amount of real water to wash her face, one of the few little luxuries she allowed for herself. She applied a small amount of shadow to her eyes and a thin sheen of pale red gloss to her lips. Quickly she brushed through her new mane of black curls. She’d have to get all new hair tools, she realized. That would be a pain. Probably have to order up from Earth.
She pulled the thick mass back into a pony-tail, borrowing one of Jamie’s scrunchies. Once in her room she pulled on a clean pair of jeans and frowned. They didn’t quite fit anymore with her taller height and curvier hips. Throwing on one of her looser tops that now fit a bit snugly over her breasts, she hurried into Jamie’s room. Jamie was, or had been, taller than her and curvier. Now, however…
She dug in the back of her daughter’s closet for the girl’s least favorite pair of jeans. She skinned them on and they fit perfectly. Well, that was a relief. Guess she’s be ordering up a lot from Earth. Until they arrived Jamie could share her clothes with her mother. Rose would have to order Jamie some new things for her daughter to put up with that development.
She slipped into her trainers, scribbled a note to her youngest that she was most likely working late and to order in if she didn’t feel like cooking or going to the communal kitchen, and grabbed the key ring and made it out of her home five minutes before school was due to let out. A quick jog through the corridors and she was at the transport station.
With a flip of her U.N.I.T. I.D. she was bumped to the head of the line and five minutes later the little magnetic train took off for dome Kappa. She read over the full file on the U.F.O. crash and had finished it by the time the magtrain pulled into the Kappa Station. With a grin and another flash of her I.D. she bounded through the VIP gate and into Kappa dome proper. From there it was an easy half mile jog to her destination.
All domes were kept at .95 G’s, close enough to Earth’s for the difference to be negligible for those who travelled back and forth frequently. She didn’t, but at least it meant that she wouldn’t go floating off by trying to move too quickly.
Landon was waiting for her outside the main doors. “You’ll have to come through with me, Mum. Your fingerprints and retina and simple photo I.D. will be useless now to confirm your identity. I know it’s a pain, but let’s get you back into the system properly. Uncle Jake said he’d wait.”
Rose nodded and headed to HR with her son. Uncle Jake was Jake Symmonds. He’d transferred to U.N.I.T. on Earth after helping her take out Torchwood Headquarters, then again had followed her up to the moon when she’d first come. He was her best friend, had been ever since Mickey had taken Torchwood’s side in the whole baby-snatching debacle, had been the one to distract Rose while someone had stolen Landon.
She had never in her life thought that she could hate someone she used to love the way she hated Mickey. Well, that was a lifetime ago. Mickey had nearly destroyed three lives in his betrayal, Jake nearly dying in his part of the rescue of her son, and Jake had never forgiven Mickey’s betrayal.
The two of them had made a good team, with Rose’s scientific knowledge (she’d put that calculus solving brain to good use, earning several doctorates along the way) and Jake’s uncanny instincts, bravado, clever battle plans, and at times sheer brawn. They’d climbed the U.N.I.T. ranks side by side. Jake was the closest thing her kids had had to a father and if he hadn’t been gay they’d probably have married out of sheer convenience and general enjoyment of the other’s company. Not that she had ever had romantic feelings for the man, but she wasn’t dead, he was hot, she liked having him around, and he was a great surrogate father. Good marriages had been built on less than that. Especially on the moon.
“Hey, Rosie,” Jake said when she entered HR and he looked up from chatting up young Dougan McConnell.
“Hey, yourself, Jakey,” she threw back. He knew perfectly well she didn’t like being called Rosie. The only person she’d ever let get away with that had been Jack Harkness and he only got away with it because, well…he was Jack. She sighed wistfully, but then cleared her mind and turned to Dougan.
“Wow, Dr. Tyler, you look…” Dougan smiled and let his compliment trail off, not quite sure how she’d take it.
“I look what?” she asked with a flirtatious grin.
“Well…hot,” he managed. She laughed and a relieved flush spread across the young man’s face.
“Still look enough like me, though?” she asked.
“Well, I could tell who you were,” Dougal said, “Even without Jake calling you Rosie. The biggest change is the hair. Landon explained what happened, so if you’ll just come with me, I’ll get your new stats on file.”
Rose observed with interest that she had actually gotten two and a half inches taller and 8 pounds lighter. He took a blood sample of her slightly orangish blood for DNA records and then did an x-ray of her teeth. “No more fillings,” he said, as he read them a few moments later. Then she was fingerprinted and her retina was scanned and in just a short while she had a shiny new I.D. card to call her very own and a clip on key pass with her information and clearance level encoded on it.
The bureaucracy out of the way, Jake and Landon joined her for the walk to see her boss. She barely listened as John Cassidien briefed her on what she would find. “What we need, Rose is for you to figure out how to get inside. We’ve tried everything. The door just won’t budge.”
“I’ll do my best,” she chirped. No one but Landon would know her hearts were beating a mile a minute. He’d be able to hear it with his Time Lord senses. All three men followed her into the laboratory and she had to fight down tears of joy as she saw the familiar and beloved shape of the TARDIS. She walked forward almost as if she were in a trance, still unbelieving of the evidence right in front of her eyes. She felt in her pocket, her fingers closing around the ring of keys, then finding the one that was warm.
She reached out to touch the doors of the TARDIS with one hand, preparing to pull out the keys with the other. She didn’t have to. At the touch of her hand gently stroking the blue wood, the TARDIS doors opened.
“Look, kids, I’ll explain it all to you later, because it’s going to be much later before I have a clear picture of what’s going on. For the time being, just let me do my thing, all right?” With that Rose took off at a jog, leaving her children grumbling behind her.
Rose’s domicile was in the outermost habitat ring of dome Gamma, one with a view of the surface of the moon, and she’d need to go there before reporting to her boss. Nothing was going to happen without her TARDIS key. If she was lucky she’d get home and back out again before Jamie returned from school. She didn’t want to get into a long-winded conversation with Jamie about the prom. Of her three children, Jamie had the personality closest to the Doctor and the gob to match.
She was lucky. She found the TARDIS key on an old key ring in the kitchen junk drawer and was thrilled to see it was glowing. Even though she’d seen the evidence with her own eyes it was the golden key that actually made it hit home for her that this wasn’t a dream or a fantasy or the blind imaginings of the heartbroken girl she’d once been. The key made it real. She smiled softly.
With a glance up at the clock, Rose decided she had time for a quick shower. Water was used sparingly on the moon, but the first colonists had quickly worked out a way of vibrating dirt and grime off the body. It was a sonic dispersal unit. She grinned. Bet the Doctor would like a sonic shower, she thought.
She used a small amount of real water to wash her face, one of the few little luxuries she allowed for herself. She applied a small amount of shadow to her eyes and a thin sheen of pale red gloss to her lips. Quickly she brushed through her new mane of black curls. She’d have to get all new hair tools, she realized. That would be a pain. Probably have to order up from Earth.
She pulled the thick mass back into a pony-tail, borrowing one of Jamie’s scrunchies. Once in her room she pulled on a clean pair of jeans and frowned. They didn’t quite fit anymore with her taller height and curvier hips. Throwing on one of her looser tops that now fit a bit snugly over her breasts, she hurried into Jamie’s room. Jamie was, or had been, taller than her and curvier. Now, however…
She dug in the back of her daughter’s closet for the girl’s least favorite pair of jeans. She skinned them on and they fit perfectly. Well, that was a relief. Guess she’s be ordering up a lot from Earth. Until they arrived Jamie could share her clothes with her mother. Rose would have to order Jamie some new things for her daughter to put up with that development.
She slipped into her trainers, scribbled a note to her youngest that she was most likely working late and to order in if she didn’t feel like cooking or going to the communal kitchen, and grabbed the key ring and made it out of her home five minutes before school was due to let out. A quick jog through the corridors and she was at the transport station.
With a flip of her U.N.I.T. I.D. she was bumped to the head of the line and five minutes later the little magnetic train took off for dome Kappa. She read over the full file on the U.F.O. crash and had finished it by the time the magtrain pulled into the Kappa Station. With a grin and another flash of her I.D. she bounded through the VIP gate and into Kappa dome proper. From there it was an easy half mile jog to her destination.
All domes were kept at .95 G’s, close enough to Earth’s for the difference to be negligible for those who travelled back and forth frequently. She didn’t, but at least it meant that she wouldn’t go floating off by trying to move too quickly.
Landon was waiting for her outside the main doors. “You’ll have to come through with me, Mum. Your fingerprints and retina and simple photo I.D. will be useless now to confirm your identity. I know it’s a pain, but let’s get you back into the system properly. Uncle Jake said he’d wait.”
Rose nodded and headed to HR with her son. Uncle Jake was Jake Symmonds. He’d transferred to U.N.I.T. on Earth after helping her take out Torchwood Headquarters, then again had followed her up to the moon when she’d first come. He was her best friend, had been ever since Mickey had taken Torchwood’s side in the whole baby-snatching debacle, had been the one to distract Rose while someone had stolen Landon.
She had never in her life thought that she could hate someone she used to love the way she hated Mickey. Well, that was a lifetime ago. Mickey had nearly destroyed three lives in his betrayal, Jake nearly dying in his part of the rescue of her son, and Jake had never forgiven Mickey’s betrayal.
The two of them had made a good team, with Rose’s scientific knowledge (she’d put that calculus solving brain to good use, earning several doctorates along the way) and Jake’s uncanny instincts, bravado, clever battle plans, and at times sheer brawn. They’d climbed the U.N.I.T. ranks side by side. Jake was the closest thing her kids had had to a father and if he hadn’t been gay they’d probably have married out of sheer convenience and general enjoyment of the other’s company. Not that she had ever had romantic feelings for the man, but she wasn’t dead, he was hot, she liked having him around, and he was a great surrogate father. Good marriages had been built on less than that. Especially on the moon.
“Hey, Rosie,” Jake said when she entered HR and he looked up from chatting up young Dougan McConnell.
“Hey, yourself, Jakey,” she threw back. He knew perfectly well she didn’t like being called Rosie. The only person she’d ever let get away with that had been Jack Harkness and he only got away with it because, well…he was Jack. She sighed wistfully, but then cleared her mind and turned to Dougan.
“Wow, Dr. Tyler, you look…” Dougan smiled and let his compliment trail off, not quite sure how she’d take it.
“I look what?” she asked with a flirtatious grin.
“Well…hot,” he managed. She laughed and a relieved flush spread across the young man’s face.
“Still look enough like me, though?” she asked.
“Well, I could tell who you were,” Dougal said, “Even without Jake calling you Rosie. The biggest change is the hair. Landon explained what happened, so if you’ll just come with me, I’ll get your new stats on file.”
Rose observed with interest that she had actually gotten two and a half inches taller and 8 pounds lighter. He took a blood sample of her slightly orangish blood for DNA records and then did an x-ray of her teeth. “No more fillings,” he said, as he read them a few moments later. Then she was fingerprinted and her retina was scanned and in just a short while she had a shiny new I.D. card to call her very own and a clip on key pass with her information and clearance level encoded on it.
The bureaucracy out of the way, Jake and Landon joined her for the walk to see her boss. She barely listened as John Cassidien briefed her on what she would find. “What we need, Rose is for you to figure out how to get inside. We’ve tried everything. The door just won’t budge.”
“I’ll do my best,” she chirped. No one but Landon would know her hearts were beating a mile a minute. He’d be able to hear it with his Time Lord senses. All three men followed her into the laboratory and she had to fight down tears of joy as she saw the familiar and beloved shape of the TARDIS. She walked forward almost as if she were in a trance, still unbelieving of the evidence right in front of her eyes. She felt in her pocket, her fingers closing around the ring of keys, then finding the one that was warm.
She reached out to touch the doors of the TARDIS with one hand, preparing to pull out the keys with the other. She didn’t have to. At the touch of her hand gently stroking the blue wood, the TARDIS doors opened.
